Wharton Tech Blog

At Wharton Technology Conference, Matt Espe, CEO of IKON Office solutions will shed some light to IKON’s transformation from technology provider to business partner.

Matthew J. Espe
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer,
IKON Office Solutions

In today’s digital economy, innovative technology is your ticket into the ballpark. To win the game, businesses must move from a technology-vendor model to strategic business partner approach — assessing companies’ needs, and applying the right mix of leading technology and value-added services to effectively meet those needs, and drive efficiency throughout the enterprise. Join IKON Chairman and CEO Matthew Espe as he discusses IKON’s transformation from a commodity hardware vendor to a solutions and services business. Espe will discuss the importance of cultivating a partnership with customers, versus simply selling technology, and the critical role services play in this approach.

Well, at this year’s Wharton Technology Conference we’ve got answer for you from people that have been there!

Chief Technology Officer
        President,
        Xerox Innovation Group
        Xerox Corporation
      

Can a company close to bankruptcy afford to invest in technology and
innovation? Can it afford not to? Dr. Sophie Vandebroek, CTO and president
of the Xerox Innovation Group, will provide a candid assessment of the  investment model and lessons learned during the Xerox turnaround. Xerox 
is a company built on a rich tradition of innovation, creating xerography, 
modern desktop computing, laser printing and multifunction markets – 
the foundation of our digital connected world. The company has invested 
in – and harvested the results of — technology innovation for more 
than 50 years.

Also speaking at WTC:
- Phil Edholm, Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Network Architecture, Nortel
- Matthew J. Espe, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, IKON Office Solutions
- Phil Hester, Corporate Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, AMD
- George Conrades, Executive Chairman, Akamai Technologies, Inc.
- Mark Bregman, Chief Technology Officer, Symantec
- Shellye Archambeau, Chief Executive Officer MetricStream

For more program information, speaker bios, and tickets please visit: www.whartontechconference.com

9th Annual Wharton Entrepreneurship Conference
"Reaching Beyond Your Grasp"

The
path to launching something new is often riddled with doubt,
difficulty, and denouncements. Whether one is well-funded or working on
a shoe string-budget, it is the attitude of "Reaching Beyond Your
Grasp" that defines many successful entrepreneurs, entrepreneurial
companies and entrepreneurial industries. This year’s conference seeks
to present these stories to our attendees in a manner that is relevant
to today’s entrepreneurs.

For more information, please visit the Wharton Entrepreneurship Conference website.

The conference will be held on Friday, November 11th, 2005.

The tenth annual Wharton Technology Conference will be held on Friday, February 24th, 2006 in Philadelphia Convention Center. Widely considered to be one of the top business programs in the country, Wharton has a special emphasis on technology, and the Wharton Technology Conference is the biggest technology event both at the University of Pennsylvania and in the Philadelphia area.

This year, under the theme “Sustainable Technology Leadership: Investments Strategies, Markets, and People,” we will explore emergence of business models and directions which enable companies, industries and nations to maintain technological leadership. Three keynotes framing this theme will be presented by:
- Dr. Sophie Vandebroek, Chief Technology Officer, Xerorx Corporation
- Mr. Phil Edholm, Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Network Architecture, Nortel
- Mr. Matthew J. Espe, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, IKON Office Solutions

In addition to keynote presentations, 2006 Wharton Technology Conference will feature eight break-out panel sessions covering the following topics:
- Clean/Environmental Technologies
- Consumer electronics and Interactive entertainment,
- Connective and social networking technologies
- Technology solutions for financial services
- Digital content delivery and search,
- Investment in Technology: VC and corporate, and
- Monetizing amateur content creation

Finally, on tenth anniversary of its inception, Wharton Technology Conference will cast a special spotlight onto leadership in technology industries through a series of live interviews with prominent technology leaders.

Mark your calendars and stay tuned to www.whartontechconference.com for more updates throughout the year! 

For speaking, marketing, or sponsorship opportunities contact wtc-board@wharton.upenn.edu.

It’s finally here, the week of the 2005 Wharton Tech Conference. If you haven’t registered, be sure to register and attend the conference this Friday. It’s going to be a kick-ass event to say the least. From last spring when Tom and I were hashing out possible themes for the conference, to how the rest of the execs and team pulled all the last minute touches, I’m very happy with how this event will turn out.

For example, first time this year we have a business issue panel on Technology Marketing where top marketing professionals from Adobe, Yahoo!, NVidia, Cisco, Fiberlink and IBM will discuss some of the latest techniques to position their companies and reach out for their target market. Additionally, for the folks on the cutting edge, we included a Nanotechnology panel with top-notch speakers to discuss where this industry heading next. And, I’d remiss not to say, but Digital Media is looking very promising with Wharton’s own Kevin Werbach moderating it. And if last year’s open source discussions with Eric Raymond, Jason Matusow from Microsoft and others wasn’t enough, we have another Open Source round this time focusing on trend setting areas where Linux is making inroads.

We have our staple panels for Venture Capital, moderated by another Wharton faculty David Hsu, and Entrepreneurship with a particular focus on our theme of convergent technologies for mass markets. If you thought VoIP is over-hyped then you may miss great insights on our Communcations panel with folks from Avaya, Vonage, Time Warner Cable among others. Finally, and I’m particularly happy about this, we have two panels that will touch on customer segments and perspectives that are typically not addressed: Small and Medium Businesses, and Buying Technology. Both panels have outstanding speakers that will discuss technologies to better serve the SMB market, and how technology buying can influence competitive advantage, from a customer perspective and from a high-tech acquisition perspective.

One more reason to sign-up is our unbeliveable set of raffle items to be handed out at the conference. With generous support from our sponsors we have tons of Adobe software, Microsoft goodies,  Wharton School Publishing books, and two major prizes: Archos portable media player and a 20" Wide Screen LCD from Dell. So, sign up or stay tuned to this blog where we will post updated during the day.

Sure, it may be DIP week now, but next week will be…

…the next Tech Club social!

When: next Wednesday, Feb 9, 8:00-11:30pm
Where: Black Sheep, 17th and Latimer Streets (between Locust and Spruce)

In addition to the usual merriment, we will also be welcoming new
admits as part of the Wharton Winter Welcome program. Be sure to stop
by to catch up with other Tech Club members and to meet the new Class
of 2007!

Per the usual custom, drinks and appetizers will be provided. We hope
to see you there!

The Wharton Technology Club is proud to co-host “Successes & Challenges of Yahoo! in China”

Allan Kwan, Regional VP & Managing Director, Yahoo! Asia

When:  5-6:30PM  - Wednesday, 1/26/05

Where:  Lauder-Fisher Hall - Auditorium

The Wharton Technology Club is pleased to co-host a discussion presented by Allan Kwan on the challenges that Yahoo! has faced in the Chinese market as well as some of the successes that they have enjoyed.  Mr. Kwan is currently the Regional VP & Managing Director of Yahoo! Asia and a former Wharton & Lauder grad.

Profile on Allan Kwan

With more than 22 years of information technology, telecommunications, and general management experience, Mr. Allan Kwan is responsible for Yahoo!’s overall business operations in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.  In the past year, Mr. Kwan has been instrumental in reshaping the China operation following the acquisition of 3721 Network Software Company Limited and the set up of 1Pai.com, an ecommerce joint venture with Sina. 

Prior to joining Yahoo! in July 2001, Mr. Kwan was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Asia.com Inc., responsible for local content, web services, and mobile commerce.  Prior to Asia.com, Kwan served as Vice President of Motorola Inc., and General Manager of the Asia Personal Networks Group.  At Motorola his focus included new product development and the integration of information, data communications, software, Internet and telephony for the emerging wireless internet industry.  From 1994-99, Kwan led the growth of Motorola’s paging business in Greater China, and held the position of Vice President and General Manager of the Paging Subscriber Division, where he managed over 2500 employees and built one of the most profitable operations in the company with annual revenues exceeding US$1 billion.  For over a decade, Kwan also worked at Nortel Networks managing functional areas in Manufacturing Engineering, Operations, Telco Marketing, International Business Development, and Wireless Systems Sales.

Kwan holds a Bachelor of Applied Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of British Columbia in Canada, as well as a Master of Business Administration (Distinction) degree from the Wharton School, and a Master of Arts degree in International Studies from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA. With more than 22 years of information technology, telecommunications, and general management experience, Mr. Allan Kwan is responsible for Yahoo!’s overall business operations in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan.  In the past year, Mr. Kwan has been instrumental in reshaping the China operation following the acquisition of 3721 Network Software Company Limited and the set up of 1Pai.com, an ecommerce joint venture with Sina. 

The Wharton
Technology Club is pleased to present a discussion of the Storage
Technology Industry by industry leader Veritas Software.

Come hear Senior Product Planners and Wharton Alums
Scott Kaiser (WG’01) and Marc Simmons (WG’98) discuss
the strategic implications of Storage Virtualization and Utility Computing
(on-demand computing) for Veritas Software and the IT
industry as a whole.

With $1.75 billion in annualized revenues, Veritas Software ranks among the top 10 software companies
in the world. Known for its focus on
Storage Software that supports open architectures and heterogeneous IT
environments, Veritas is now at the forefront in the
emerging areas of Storage Virtualization and Utility
Computing.

Based in Silicon Valley, Veritas will be recruiting at Wharton for MBA full-time and
internship positions. Refreshments will
be served.

4:30-5:30PM - WEDNESDAY,
12/1/04, JMHH
340

Yours truly,Linda Eng and John Koo, VPs of Speaker Series

Wharton Technology Club